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Intel Xeon E5-2680 and GIGABYTE X79S-UP5 Server Level Performance

10-26-2012, 06:46 AM

This year, Intel has 2 CPU sockets in DeskTop market.
As previous generation, Extreme was LGA 1366 and mainstream was LGA 1156.
The new generation Extreme is LGA 2011 and mainstream is LGA 1155.
X79 life cycle should be around 3 years which is same as X58.

LGA 2011 in consumer market only has X79 chipset.
Some MB makers launch new X79 series and even use Server level chipset to enhance spec.
GIGABYTE X79S-UP5-WiFi is the first model to use Intel C606 chipset.
I, windwithme, will share you the LGA 2011 Server CPU, 8C16T, performance.

Let?s look at the CPU backside first.
Left is most high-end CPU in consumer market, Intel Core i7-3960X.
Right is Intel Xeon E5-2680. Serve level CPU price and usage are different with our common views.
E5-2680 clock is 2.7GHz. It supports Turbo Boost 2.0 to 3.5GHz.
It?s physical 8 Cores and Hyper-Threading to reach 16 threads, called 8C16T.
It?s 32nm manufacturing, TDP 130W, and 20MB L3 Cache. It?s very high end CPU in E2600 series.

Advanced CPU Features Menu
You can adjust individual CPU Core ratio and choose how many cores to run.
C1E is power saving feature. Intel Turbo Boost is opposite with C1E. It will boost the CPU speed by loading.

LGA 2011 is exclusive quad channels structure. You can set up by Channel A/B/C/D.
For X.M.P. DDR3, it has original parameters. The picture shows CL9 10-9-27.

Xeon E5-2680 is for Server market. It?s more on multi-threads and reliability.
If you want to pull higher clock, you can adjust the CPU frequency. However, it?s limited.
If you are OC enthusiasts or looking for higher clock, Core i7 3930K or 3960X is more suitable.
The test below is based on E5-2680 8C16T structure.

In E5-2680 8C16T structure, it has very good performance for multi-threading software, such like CINEBENCH R11.5 / FRYRENDER / x264 FHD Benchmark.
As overall system performance, some software seems no performance improved due to none multi-threading support, such like CrystalMark 2004R3 / PCMark Vantage.
Windows Experience Index cannot support 8C16T, so I just ignore it.
Xeon is great for multimedia or file converting, but not some regular software.
Besides you have specified software requirement, for general users, 4C6T or 6C12T CPU utilization rate will be higher.

The performance difference between DDR3 1333 1T to enable X.M.P. DDR3 1866 2T is as below.
ADIA64 increases 12.5%, Sandra increases 31% and MaXXMEM increases about 5%.
ADIA64 and MaXXMEM performance is not much for quad channel platform.
But you can see Sandra Memory bandwidth is almost double the LGA 1155 platform.
The quad channel support really impacts the DDR3 performance.

If we compare three clock and parameters to see the bandwidth, and using Sandra Memory Bandwidth as base, DDR3 1333 1T is 0.4% higher than 1866 2T.
You can see 1T or 2T is not the key factor. Pulling high DDR3 clock is more helpful for DDR3 bandwidth.

Temperature(Room is 30˚C)
Enter to OS Desktop ? 32~35

CPU full speed by LinX ? 38~50

Even the threading is 8C16T, due to CPU clock is not too high and H100 water cooler performance, the temperature is very good.
It seems Intel original cooler is enough for Xeon CPU.

Power Consumption (Enter to OS Desktop)
Enable C1E - 65W

Disable C1E - 107W

CPU full speed by LinX - 205W

The power consumption is using AMD Radeon HD 7970 as well.
New LGA 2011 and former LGA 1366 CPU are both 32nm. The power consumption is big different.
You can see LGA2011 is lower 50~70W than LGA 1366 CPU.
Besides CPU power consumption is lower, new C606 or X79 is also saving more power than X58.

Redaon HD 7970 is current AMD most high end single GPU VGA. All tests have very high 3D performance.
Of course, AMD also has Redaon HD 7990 with two7970 GP.
You can choose your own VGA by budget or requirements. This is for simple share.

As room is 30 degree C, I use tool to test MOSFET temperature.
When entering to OS desktop and enable C1E, the max temperature is 40.5 and 51.6 in burning CPU.
As my own experience in several X79 boards, X79S-UP5 MOSFET is quite low in CPU default mode.
My every LGA 2011 articles all have these numbers for reference.

I used to share Core i7-3930K / 3960X default and OC performance.
These two CPUs are most high end in consumer PC which is 6C12T.
This Intel Xeon E5-2000 series CPU only use in high end Server.
E5-2680 is 8C16T. Some general software doesn?t support it, but it still improves some software performance.
If you are OC enthusiasts, 3930K and 3960X adjustable ratio is a better choice.

X79S-UP5 price segment is same as former X79-UD5. The main difference is X79S-UP5 using Intel C606 chipset.
It adds dual LAN, 14 SATA devices, supporting ECC and new IR3550 PowlRstage PWM design.
Unfortunately, Intel C606 only supports two SATA3 devices. Otherwise, X79S-UP5 spec will be even better.
X79S-UP5in mid-end X79 market is quite competitive in specs and components.
Currently, X79 MB is still in high end market. However, LGA2011 life cycle is longer than mainstream LGA 1155 platform.
It?s all depending on your budget and needs. This is just a reference guide for who is considering LGA 2011 platform.